My name is Carlo DeVito, and I am the author of East Coast Wineries: A Complete Guide from Maine to Virginia published by Rutgers University Press. This blog is dedicated to primarily east coast wines and wineries including Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia. It will also feature products and information from other regions.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

The First Maryland Wine Festival

Editor's Note: The following piece is not mine. I had intended to put it in a tickler file and then drege it up when the next time the Maryland Wine Festval rolled around, but decided that with the passing of Bob Ziem, no time was more appropriate than now.

The First Maryland Wine Festival, 20 [Some] Years Agoby Jack & Emily JohnstonThe very first Maryland Wine Festival was held at the Shriver Homestead in Union Mills, in September, 1984. It was the brainchild of John Barker, then director of tourism in Carroll County. How he conceived the idea is unknown, and the first we heard about it was in the early spring, when he called the local chapter of the American Wine Society and asked for help in planning the thing. Well, sure! Anything to do with wine, count us in.

The details are vague now, 20-some years later. The basic Festival was pretty much the same then as it is now, but on a much smaller scale, and was held for only one day. The Wine Education Seminars, managed by a few stalwart compadres, were part of the original program. There was an amateur wine adjudication, but it was an impromptu affair. Folks brought in their homemade wines and asked for comments on them. No one had planned for this. The idea for a wine-making demonstration had not yet germinated.

The Festival got off to a rather rocky start at 10 a.m., just as the gates were opening. Some guy was driving by and rubbernecking at all the goings-on, and rear-ended a car waiting to make the left turn into the Homestead. He was immediately descended upon by 20 State Troopers with breathalizers. Turned out, even at 10 in the morning, the driver posted about a .08. And he’d not even been through the gates.

One of the notable features of this event was the attendance of Leon Adams, a prominent author of many wine books. He autographed copies of the new edition of his best-selling book, “The Wines of America.” In our copy he wrote, “Let’s do this again!” And we have, of course, for 20 years now.

The attendance was about 5,000 people, about twice as many as anybody anticipated. This was one of the motivations to move the Festival elsewhere the following year. The facilities at the Homestead were severely strained. A new home was found at the Carroll County Farm Museum – where the festival still proudly resides today.

In those days most red Maryland wines left a lot to be desired. There were a few good ones, but the budget for the Wine-Ed Seminars wouldn’t accommodate those – the good ones tended to be the most expensive ones. So a California Zinfandel was used instead, even though a Maryland wine would have been preferable. The first white used was a Montbray Seyval Blanc. Ham Mowbray, proprietor of Montbray, complained later that day that we were doing too much educating. An attendee at one of the sessions tasted something from Ham’s tent, and proclaimed it “cloudy” (which was, incidentally, true), and bragged that he had learned about this characteristic at the Wine-Ed seminar.

There were eight winery participants in that first Festival. Many of the current wineries were only a dream in their owners’ minds back then. Several of those participants are no longer with us, including Montbray. The wineries included Ziem, Byrd (both now gone), Catoctin, Berrywine, Elk Run, Woodhall and Boordy.

Carol Wilson (Elk Run) said that they had one small tent, one table and two pourers, and ran out of wine fairly quickly. Bob Ziem remembers being inundated with customers, and totally overwhelmed by the number of people at the festival. Rob Deford (Boordy) agreed, said that they were surprised by the huge turnout.

1984 was not only the first Maryland Wine Festival, but also the year that the Association of Maryland Wineries was organized. Rob Deford, the first president of the group, said that it happened largely because the wineries needed to band together in order to make sure this event was a success.

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About Me

Carlo DeVito is a long time wine lover, and author of books and magazine articles. He is the author of Wineries of the East Coast. He has traveled to wine regions in California, Canada, up and down the east coast, France, Spain and Chile. He has been a published executive for more than 20 years. He shepherded the wine book program of Wine Spectator as well as worked with Kevin Zraly, Oz Clarke, Matt Kramer, Tom Stevenson, Evan Dawson, Greg Moore, Howard Goldberg, and many other wine writers. He has also published Salvatore Calabrese, Jim Meehan, Clay Risen, and Paul Knorr.
Mr. DeVito is the inventor of the mini-kit which has sold more than 100,000,000 copies world wide. He has also publisher such writers as Stephen Hawking, E. O Wilson, Philip Caputo, Gilbert King, James McPherson, John and Mary Gribbin, Thomas Hoving, David Margolick, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., John Edgar Wideman, Stanley Crouch, Dan Rather, Dee Brown, Susie Bright, and Eleanor Clift.
He is also the owner of Hudson-Chatham Winery, co-founder of the Hudson Berkshire Beverage Trail, and president of the Hudson Valley Wine Country.
https://carlodevito.wordpress.com/